Tips to avoid common user experience (UX) mistakes

User experience, or UX, is one of the most—if not the most—important factors that can influence the success or failure of your business. A positive user experience will yield much better and more profitable results than a neutral or, least welcome, a negative experience. The concept behind user experience on websites or other online business media is this: user experience is influenced by overall design, website design, interface design, graphical user interface, as well as overall appearance and usability. If your business operates solely through an online interface, a poor user experience can lead to a drop or even a halt in sales. Even businesses which operate online and through physical stores can experience poor sales due to a lack of positive user experience.

The following tips are the top four user experience or UX mistakes that businesses make and how you can avoid or solve them.

Tip #1: Avoid using the wrong product.

Let's say your website promotes excellent user experience. That’s great! But what if the product you are promoting or selling just isn’t clicking with customers? The wrong product sends customers packing like little else. Before offering your service or product, make sure that it is something customers are actively looking for.

Tip #2: Don’t practice "Too little, too late."

While tweaks and fixes to your website or online system are a naturally part of the online business process, you should ensure that you’ve done everything you possibly can before going live to ensure a positive user experience. The more you work before you allow customers to access your business, the better the end result. Unless your product has a stellar reputation, most customers will not stick around to wait while you fix design problems.

Tip #3: Focus, focus, focus.

A lack of focus for your business creates not only a poor user experience but generally creates a poor interface design as well. Instead of trying to appeal to all customers or add dozens of new features, allow your business to find its focus and build a strong user experience-based customer market. Then, as you discover your focus, you can add related features.

Tip #4: Observe and test.

One of the most important—and overlooked—steps in developing a great user experience is observation of users interacting with the interface design and then re-designing or altering the experience accordingly. It may be tempting to rush your interface in order to begin making money as soon as possible, but the smallest user interface issue can create potentially huge losses in sales. For example, a recent study found that customers are much more likely to cancel purchases from businesses that require an account set-up before purchase—and that making accounts optional caused at least a 45% increase in sales. Other issues, such as a frustrating web design or poor usability, can also be found during testing. Your business will definitely benefit from testing your graphical user interface and interface design before releasing it to the public.

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